What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers. Don't forget to hit the bell notification icon to be
notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. You know I really got into alice
in chains back in 2009. The band had their record Black gives way to blue coming out that year and
it was their long awaited return following the death of singer Layne Staley. William
Duvall who previously toured with guitarist Jerry Cantrell was now the group’s singer
and he had big shoes to fill. Of course I didn’t know anything about Staley so I did what most
self respecting people do when they want to learn about something . I went on wikipedia
as Michael Scott so eloquently puts it Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can
write anything they want about any subject so you know you're getting the best possible information.
I read of course about singer Layne Staley’s final years of his life and everywhere I read
about him the same interview kept coming up. It was this highly quoted interview with an author
named Adriana Rubio who supposedly interviewed the singer days or weeks before he passed.
Staley apparently told the author he knew his time was near and he was crippled by
his addiction. He talked about his regrets and how his addiction was all consuming. He also
discussed his complicated relationship with his parents, especially his father who was an addict
and going into treatment and would slam his alice in chains bandmates claiming they were
no longer his friends. But what shocked me the most about this whole interview is that big news
sites were picking it up as if it was gospel, but there was no proof it ever happened. There’s no
tape recordings or anything. So what was the story behind it and was it fake? Stay tuned to find out.
One thing that was a well known fact about Layne Staley was that he didn’t grant a ton
of interviews especially in his later years. His last notable appearance was on rockline in 1999
during an interview the other members of Alice in Chains who came on to promote their nothing safe
box set. Before that he appeared on rockline in 1998 as Jerry cantrell was promoting boggy depot.
Prior to that he gave a few interviews to promote the band’s self titled album in 1995,
the most notable one being the Rolling Stone interview,
which i've previously covered on my channel. The link is down below to check it out.
That Rolling Stone interview angered the band as the band’s manager was promised
by the magazine they wouldn’t focus on staley’s struggle with drugs. Of course the piece talked
a fair bit about it and even the cover used the headline the needle and the damage done.
It was no surprise in the years that followed he retreated from the media spotlight.
i found it rather odd that he’d give an interview and talk so openly about his addiction
when at the same time he wrote songs like Grind which i thought took aim
at the media for making assumptions and focusing on rumors about the band,
as well as the drugs as well as them breaking up.. Why would he only reinforce their views?
Rubio’s interview was part of a book she working on that came out in January 2003 titled Layne
Staley's Angry Chair - a look inside the heart and soul of an incredible musician. Rubio would
claim she talked to staley at 3AM over the phone on February 3, 2002. Due to the timing of the
publication of course and the fact that Layne passed away in 2002 he could never publically
comment on whether it actually happened. Rubio's interview wouldn't get news coverage until 2003
and Rubio would release an updated version of her book in 2006 titled Layne Staley Get Born Again.
Rubio for her part claims she spoke to layne for 2.5 hours , but only six pages of her book
is dedicated to the conversation So what did they talk about for 2.5 hours if she only came
up with 6 pages? To date she never published the transcript or audio of the conversation.
In the book Alice in Chains the untold story by david de sola he dissects this perfectly.
Having read numerous interviews with Layne, De Sola claims the speaking style in Rubio’s book
doesn’t sound like Layne. De Sola claims that in all the interviews he’s read with layne he never
referenced any songs or lyrics specifically from mad season or alice in chains, but in rubio’s book
he supposedly makes 10 references to his own songs or lyrics. And Rubio’s book also claimed that
lyane made reference to jim morrison of the doors, which was another topic rubio wrote a book about.
Things didn’t stop there though. Rubio was planning on creating a biopic about Layne.
She would team up with author john brandon who wrote a book about Alice in Chains with former
bassist mike starr. The movie project got as far as auditioning someone to play Layne, but the pair
got a letter from Alice in Chains lawyer asking them to shelf the project because it portrayed
the band in a negative light and they would not cooperate. In addition to that Layne Staley’s
estate did not endorse the project either. When David De Sola tried to interview rubio about
her supposed layne interview she declined claiming she had other priorities in life.
The book is also notable because it featured interviews with Layne’s mother Nancy
and his sister Liz in addition to supposedly featuring artwork and journal entries by Layne.
Following the book’s release Layne’s sister would comment on the book confirming she did
talk to Rubio thinking the book would honor her brother and hopefully make him realize how
many people adored him and looked up to him and perhaps it could snap him out of his addiction.
she would claim that she doesn’t believe that Rubio spoke to her brother and She would reveal
that she told Layne about Rubio’s book and how the journalist wanted to talk to him
but he wanted no part of it claiming he didn't trust journalists. That does it
for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe.
If you guys have suggestions for future topics let me know in the comments section below. Take care.